Buenos Aires - Day 10

Wednesday 1st November

Having exhausted most of the sightseeing options in Buenos Aires, I decide to look up an ex-BBC journalist and see if I can get beneath the surface of daily life. Alejandro is only too happy to meet up and chew the fat. This is where I realise the limitations of my Spanish. So far I´ve got on swimmingly well buying things, ordering food and having simple chats with the locals. When it comes to discussing politics and philosophy I am frustratingly unable to find the words. I haven´t had to speak Spanish at this level since university.

I ask Alejandro about the protest I saw on the Avenida 9 de Julio on my first day here. In fact there has been one almost every day since I arrived. He says they´re commonplace. People are always protesting - about corruption, poverty, lack of amenities, everything. I ask if it accomplishes anything. The cynical reply is that someone at the top gets paid off to quell the dissenters but the money never reaches the people who need it.

I´m surprised at the level of poverty here. Every city has it´s beggars but here it´s not unusual to see people rummaging through bins every night for scraps. Unemployment is at 20% and a further 15-20% receive social security i.e 40% of Argentina is poor. Jobs are difficult to come by and I´m told it´s rare for people to change jobs after a couple of years, especially for reasons of boredom.

I also ask about European immigration as almost everyone in Buenos Aires looks European. In fact almost 90% are of European descent, many from Italy and Spain. The Italian language has woven itself so intricately into the local dialect that many Porteños speak a mixture of the two, known as ´cocoliche´. I had wondered why ´ciao´ is always heard instead of 'adios'.

Tonight is the final performance at the Teatro Colon, one of the world´s greatest opera houses, before it closes for a couple of years. I´m not sure what´s on but I´m keen to soak go and soak up the atmosphere. Mercedes Sosa is playing a set tonight. I have never heard of her before but I learn, from a Colombian couple I chat to in the queue, that she´s a famous folk singer and is well known throughout Latin America.

The show starts at 8.30 and I´m not sure what to expect, except I think I like folk music. She struggles on to the stage needing help to settle into her chair. There is a long pause before she sings and I wonder if her voice will be more like Joni Mitchell´s or Beth Orton´s. It´s deep and raspy and not what I expected. After a couple of songs I wonder if this is for me at all. The crowd are enthralled but I´m thinking about escaping. That´s until her melancholy duet with Guadalupe Pineda called ´Gracias a la vida (que me ha dado tanto)´ which has me in tears. I´m still not quite sure what happened.

(Photo - Teatro Colon)